New Open-Access Handbook on Anti-Racist Documentation in GLAM Institutions

We are pleased to share the publication of Rassismuskritische Dokumentation. Ein Handbuch für GLAM-Institutionen, a new open-access resource developed by the Critical GLAM working group. The handbook supports museums, libraries, archives, and other memory institutions in building more reflective, anti-racist, and socially responsible documentation practices.

We are happy that three members of our team, Mariama de Brito Henn, Noémie Etienne, and Ruby Satele Asiata, authored one of the handbook’s chapters, titled Communities, Sammlungen und Sorgfalt. Their contribution discusses how documentation is never neutral, but shaped by historical power structures, and shows—through two exhibition case studies—how expanding contextual knowledge and critically questioning inherited terminology can transform the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage.

The handbook provides practical recommendations for handling sensitive terminology, highlights colonial continuities in documentation systems, and situates these challenges within broader decolonial debates. It offers concrete tools, background texts, and an online glossary to support daily work in GLAM institutions.

The publication is available open access.